The Hollow Keepers are an organisation who defend the Hollow: a mysterious otherworldly force which has begun to invade the various worlds linked through the Farplane. The Hollow removes something from the worlds it invades by damaging the fabric of reality, and the Hollow Keepers are individuals who choose to defend The Hollow (and the changes it makes) due to various personal reasons.
The Hollow Keepers are opposed by the prophesied "Hollow Breakers", who are destined to stand against The Hollow and granted immunity to its influence.
For information on other characters, click here.
Applying to all of them:
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Chorale's team technically acts like this for Fina for half the season, and get constantly beaten by her. Diverti is definitely not a fan of this.
- Heel–Face Turn: Once Garote enters the picture and reveals himself as the Big Bad, Chorale's team has no objections to joining Fina's team. Well, maybe except Chorale at first.
- Hypocrite: Every member of the faction seems to depend on the very thing they hate.
- Mazurka would be glad if emotions didn't exist, yet she's the most emotional member of the team.
- Melo thinks magic should not exist... while he fights with powerful magic himself.
- Conche came to hate music, but her main form of attack is music.
- Chorale wants to use the Hollow to end disastrous conflicts, yet being the proclaimed leader of the Keepers means he's one of the biggest instigators of it. He also talks big about giving those without painting talent in Couleur equality while his real motive in erasing color is because his own lack of painting talent prevents him from marrying Swan.
- Theme Naming: Much like Fina's team have their names centered around flowers, Chorale's team has their names based on musical themes.
- The same goes for Garote's team, whose names are based on the classic card deck (Club for Garote, Spades for Spada, Hearts for Calice, Diamonds for Moneta and the Joker for Buffon). That theme can also be seen with Chorale's team through their clothes: Chorale is Spades, Mazurka is Diamonds, Melo is Club, Conche is Hearts and Diverti is the Joker.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everyone in Chorale's team has a reason to stand in defense of the Hollow. Mazurka wants to rid her world of suffering; Melo believes magic is too dangerous to exist; Chorale thinks true equality could be achieved if everyone was completely equal. Only Conche has an actual egoistical reason, as she believes music is the cause of all her suffering.
- The Worf Effect: Conche, Mazurka and Melo fight a Rain weakened by Lapis' Hollow, all at once in Berga, and lose. This is the same trio that gave Fina's whole party a workout up to that point.
Chorale
The self-proclaimed leader of the Hollow Keepers. He appears as the Hollow Keeper of the Kingdom of Couleur: a world of artists that has been stripped of its color. Chorale sees the lack of color as the perfect opportunity to unite a world where non-artists are severely segregated. After Mazurka and Melo fail to stop Fina from closing the wormholes in Wohlstok and Illumia, he takes upon himself to personally put an end to her journey.
- Black-and-White Morality: Chorale has this view of everything, never considering what's in between the lines. He admits as much to Fina. This attitude is what drifts Nerine away from him.Chorale: True, our views are black and white. Just as it should be. How else are we supposed to change the world?
- Breaking Speech: He invests a lot of his modus operandi on breaking his targets emotionally rather than physically. He applied this to Fina when first introduced, and attempted it on Cleome as well. There's a reason why Fina hates his rhetoric.
- Casting a Shadow: Comes to be a Dark-elemental physical attacker as an unit.
- A Day in the Limelight: His Story Event shows how Chorale recruited his team, starting from Diverti and proceeding to Mazurka and Melo.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Even someone as pragmatic as Chorale is not okay with Possessed!Rinora's idea of killing/controlling Roca. In fact, he even tries to attack Rinora once he starts thinking he's gone too far. Chorale in turn decides to give Roca back to Fina and even undoes her brainwash.
- Once the Will of Oblivion shows itself to his party, Chorale knows something is seriously wrong when it tells him to "eliminate those who bring balance" and promises him that only the things they hate will be eliminated. This causes Chorale to Know When to Fold 'Em when Fina defeats his entire team in the following battle.
- Face Death with Dignity: He doesn't seem bothered at all that he's not gonna make it against the army of Voas coming his way as long as Nerine is safe.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Pulls the mother of them all in Chapter 7 by protecting Nerine and Fina's party from a population of Voas at the cost of his own life.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Fina's party never once lets Chorale in that the person he thinks is Swan is in actuality a Body Double of her. When this is finally revealed to him by Nerine herself, he feels betrayed.
- Manipulative Bastard: Chorale tends to know exactly how to keep the game under his control.
- His recruitment of new agents for his Hollow Keepers is basically him saying: "If you want to rid the world of what makes you suffer, join my team and protect the Hollow". Due to how it hits home for these people, as shown with his recruitment of Conche, it works pretty well.
- He's also not above exploiting the flaws on his opposition's rhetoric if it will help take these people out of his way. Chorale even will go as far as to temporarily brake Couleur's Hollow to show Fina the reality of his world as an attempt to break her spirit, expecting her to simply give up on her journey to stop the Hollow.
- Morality Chain: He views Swan as this. Nerine, however, developed a different opinion.
- Named Weapon: His Fedeltà Whip STMR.
- Not So Stoic: His plan to unite Couleur under the lack of color and marry Swan seems to be going completely smoothly. Until Fina comes back at full power. And then Swan (who is not even Swan as Fina learns before she heads to the scene) denies his hand in front of everyone in the kingdom. And the moment after, the best artist of Couleur completely proves him wrong by showing artists are willing to abdicate their luxury to stop the prejudice on non-artists. You can clearly see the guy has completely lost his composure after that.
- He has a worse instance once he realizes he was played like a violin by the Will of Oblivion. Goes to the point he initially refuses to join Fina's team along with the others and intends to hunt Garote down on his own if needed.
- And an even worse one once Nerine tells him the truth about her and Swan.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Dresses like a gentleman in a suit, crossing into Badass in a Nice Suit and Specs of Awesome. His Brave Shift gives an even fancier suit.
- The Stoic: Chorale likes to pose as a composed, calculating man.
- Was It All a Lie?: Locked Out of the Loop variation. Chorale doesn't take well to discovering that Nerine was actually Swan's Body Double and eventually questions her how much of his moments with Swan were actually Swan's moments.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Chorale's rationale for being a Hollow Keeper is simple: If filling his world with the Hollow is what it takes to stop prejudice, then he'll gladly take the offer and be the bad guy.
- Weapon Specialization: Chorale uses whips to fight.
- What Have I Done: Chorale is not amused when he realizes he helped an Eldritch Abomination get closer to ending the universe.
Mazurka
The Hollow Keeper of Wohlstok. Mazurka is a lonely young outcast who was severely bullied by the people of her town. She is thrilled when The Hollow strips Wohlstok of emotion, as it causes the bullying to stop. Despite trying to distance herself from people and stick to her job as a Hollow Keeper, she's the most susceptible to Fina's willingness to make friends.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Wohlstok doesn't seem to take well to Dragoons, and Mazurka is no exception. This caused people to shun her since she was a child, apparently.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Looking for Chorale and Diverti after Bruce's death in Berga apparently takes second place to helping a local kid find his pet Chocobo. Conche and Melo join her in that regard.
- A Friend in Need: She hears about the monster tormenting Conche's hometown and decides to hunt it herself, dragging Melo with her.
- Friendly Enemy: Even given her Jerkass act, do you really believe she's an enemy to Fina? Even Poppy at one point raises that question.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Mazurka's loneliness causes her to be abrasive to people and act among the villains, but her true self is that of someone who deeply wishes she could just have friends.
- In a Single Bound: She's a Dragoon, after all, to the point her Brave Shift fully decks her in her class' gear.
- The Leader: When Chorale or Diverti is not giving her orders, she leads her Goldfish Poop Gang with Melo and Conche.
- Lethal Chef: Melo comments that Mazurka is completely scatterbrained on the kitchen when she tries to cook something special to welcome Conche into the Keepers. While she burns the special treat she was making, Conche still thanks Mazurka for the effort to welcome her.
- Named Weapon: Her spear is named Emotional Lance and is her STMR.
- Playing with Fire: As an unit, she's rolling with Fire-elemental attacks.
- The Rival: She constantly proclaims herself one to Fina.
- Tsundere: Towards Fina. Mazurka has a fierce attitude that involves pushing everyone from her, and gets frustrated to no end that this doesn't work with Fina, often berating her for it. That said, Mazurka truly does care for Fina, even panicking when she thinks Fina died after getting caught in a current after the latter rescued her from the same rushing river. Upon joining the heroes, Mazurka starts to actually develop out of this and become an actual friend.
- You Are in Command Now: She ends up next in the chain of command of her team when both Chorale and Diverti are dead by the end of Chapter 8.
Melo
The Hollow Keeper of the Kingdom of Illumia. Melo is a talented yet ruthless mage who is the only man and spellcaster left in Illumia. He's also very lazy and unwilling to do heavy work, preferring to outsource his job if he can help it. He joined the Keepers after he lost his family to a dangerous magic research experiment, feeling that all magic should disappear in order to prevent similar tragedies.
- Black Mage: Melo is an incredibly powerful member of this class, and Alim made his unit along with giving buffs to Black Magic in general just to drive this point home, making his Magic hit just as hard as any other Neo Vision and making him able to quadcast Black Magic.
- Blood Knight: Kalmia implies that despite Melo's claims that he hates crossing paths with Fina's team, he actually enjoys fighting them.
- Blow You Away: Melo has Wind as his secondary element.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He hates doing work, period. The only reason Melo's even helping Chorale is because of his belief that magic is too dangerous to exist. That said, he has extreme expertise with his magic, which shows when he's fighting Fina's team.
- Brutal Honesty: Melo isn't afraid of stating his opinion of things, which makes him the usual Butt-Monkey for Mazurka as he also likes to talk about how emotive she is.
- Does Not Like Magic: Losing his parents to a magic experiment caused him to have a hatred of magic. Which is funny when you note he's an adept Black Mage himself. Melo develops heavily out of this, and at the end of the season, he goes back to his village to help his people develop practical and constructive applications for magic.
- Dual Wield: He's shown to wield two rods in the same fashion as tonfas.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite everything he does, Melo is definitely not one who Would Hurt a Child.
- Foil: Works like one for Kalmia. While both are Lazy Bums, Kalmia is Married to the Job and really willing to work to make the world better through her medicine, while Melo wants nothing with anything, believes effort is futile and thinks all application for magic, his speciality, is destructive. Melo also happens to be a decent cook where Kalmia is a Lethal Chef.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Melo is shown several times, in both his story event and in the main story after the Chapter 8 timeskip, to be using healing magic specifically, backing up Kalmia in running a hospital. As a vision, however, Melo has no aptitude with white magic at all, and thus the only way he can use any is if equipment or an esper grant him a white magic spell.
- Gathering Steam: This is why Melo's Brave Shift has a store-like technique: He'll spend the first four turns buffing and accumulating charges, then he'll unleash his Limit Burst in the fifth. That said, It Only Works Once unless a player has a proper support unit to accompany him and match the buffs on his Grandis abilities.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: For all his unwillingness to work, his Water-elemental magic is very powerful, and Melo himself has incredibly high magic talent.
- Lazy Bum: Melo hates work. This is helped by being himself a very powerful Black Mage, and his unit reflects this in his Shift by having a stackable store buff that allows him to get a cumulative MAG buff of 800% for the next action.
- Leave Me Alone!: Melo is not a fan of Fina's rhetoric, or anyone else's for that matter. He'd rather be left to his own devices all the time. He develops out of this over the course of the season, learning to value his friendships.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Hinted at through his actions (and eventually outright admitted by him), but Melo used to be way more idealistic and active, and the various injustices he dealt with (including seeing his family destroyed by their magical research and everyone turning on him as a result of the devastation they inadvertently wrought) served to embitter him and turn towards apathy and laziness rather than deal with his problems, and also served to make him receptive to the Hollow Keepers' cause.
- Making a Splash: His main element as an unit.
- Named Weapon: His two tonfa-like Lazy Rods, which also are his STMR.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Usual applier of the strategy when he's defeated by Fina, as he at least can say to Chorale that he put up a fight.
- Ship Tease: Between him and Freesia in his Story Event.
- There's also a smaller ship between him and Kalmia, teased constantly over the course of Season 3.
- Sleepyhead: He and Vesvia would easily get along. His bio states that he made sleeping a hobby, down to collecting items that would improve sleep, and he even considers the idea of carrying a pillow around.
- Taken for Granite: Melo's magic prowess shows here as his petrifying spells actually turn a person to bronze, which means a mere Stona/Esuna won't solve the case, demanding the original caster to undo the spell. That, or having Roca do it.
Conche
The Hollow Keeper for Symphonia, and Cleome's Best Friend. A girl from humble origins struggling to make ends meet on the Academy, contrasting Cleome's natural talent for music with her lack of prowess. Her own lack of self-confidence causes her to join Chorale's bunch when Symphonia is stripped out of music. Despite making amends with Cleome, she chooses to stay with Chorale, as she believes she's a Chosen One destined to protect the Hollow.
- Batman Gambit: Conche deliberately uses Fina's willingness to investigate the Seven Mysteries of the Academy to lead Fina to Cleome and pry the truth about the contest being rigged from her best friend.
- Because Destiny Says So: Despite making amends with Cleome, Conche fell for Chorale's Chosen One talk and believes she's fated to be with the Hollow Keepers.
- Cuteness Proximity: Conche and Cleome both love fluffy animals and a Moogle like Moog is no exception.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Conche mistakes Cleome's willingness to set herself aside for her friend for this, which works as a catalyst for her Face–Heel Turn and joining into Chorale's team when Symphonia's Hollow shows itself.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Conche is a fierce believer of this, thinking talent is basically only natural and never earned. This is despite Cleome, who is naturally gifted with instruments, having a stark hatred of pianos, but playing it for her.
- Jerkass: Conche hides her true persona behind a very rude attitude.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When allowed to be herself, Conche is actually an incredibly friendly person. Just ask anyone on Fina's team, or on Chorale's team.
- Musical Assassin: Unlike Cleome, who just prefers a traditional weapon, Conche is all too willing to use music to harm her opponents.
- Named Weapon: Her Synchronic Keyboard STMR.
- The Rival: She declares herself as such to Cleome in order to kickstart their friendship...
- Best Friend: ...Which evolves into Conche being Cleome's first actual friend and the person she cares about the most...
- The Confidant: ...And finally into Cleome telling Conche her story, something she didn't confide Fina or even Bruce to, amid their battle in Berga.
- Best Friend: ...Which evolves into Conche being Cleome's first actual friend and the person she cares about the most...
- Support Party Member: She's this to Chorale's team, being more an answer to Poppy than to Cleome; she can imbue, imperil and amplify Lightning, Water and Dark, possesses the same status removal as Poppy, and is rather effective at buffing the party's ATK and MAG and providing Demon Killer, plus her permanent triplecast allows her to use everything, including White and Green magic. Her only pitfall is that her LB fill ability is a cooldown available only on Turn 5.
- Token Mini-Moe: Conche is as young as Cleome (about fourteen), making her the youngest member of Chorale's team.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Averted. Despite being in an opposite faction to Fina's, Conche thanks her and Cleome multiple times for their efforts and legitimately appreciates their drive to help her.
Diverti
Bruce's former acquaintance. He initially appears in the Fortress City Berga, his homeworld, to confront Bruce, now with Fina's party and the Hollow Breakers. He was Bruce's apprentice and blames him for the death of his loved ones, which motivated him to eventually join Chorale's team.
- Big Damn Heroes: Diverti bails Roca and her team out of problems with Moneta in Chapter 8, with Doomtrain in tow.
- Casting a Shadow: The secondary element his unit uses.
- The Comically Serious: He's more serious than even Chorale. Pay attention to how he interacts with the other members of his team and you'll realize he's constantly annoyed by their lack of focus.
- Death Dealer: Likes using cards as throwing weapons.
- Dishing Out Dirt: His main element is Earth.
- Dub Name Change: Can someone explain why the translators decided to rename "Dibelle" into "Diverti"?
- Evil Former Friend: He used to be Bruce's disciple in summoning arts before the Hollow entered the equation.
- Heroic Sacrifice: To enable Rain and the others to reach the Will of Light and revive Fina, Diverti stays behind and performs a Last Stand against the Voas in Symphonia to buy time.
- It's Personal: With Bruce. Diverti specifically made a wish to erase exits from Berga so that when Bruce comes home, he can't run away from his confrontation.
- Named Weapon: His deck is named Vengeant Cards as per his STMR.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He dresses just as well as Bruce, which tips on the connection between the two.
- Summon Magic: Being Bruce's former disciple, that's to be expected. Comes to use when he has to save Roca from the true Hollow Keepers via summoning Doomtrain. To drive his point home, his Brave Shift turns him into an evoker.
- You Are in Command Now: With Chorale gone, he takes into himself to lead the team.
WALKING SPOILERS
The True Hollow Keepers
Chorale's team in actuality are not the real Hollow Keepers, but only people who tried to live up to the legend. Physalis's team meet the one of the true Hollow Keepers during their crusade to find Fina in Lapis, and they get personal with its members, in particular Rain and Lasswell. Garote, the true leader, led Chorale to think he was leading the Keepers. Once Fina defeats Chorale's party for the last time, his team takes over as the Big Bads of the season, who intend to use the Hollow to erase all of existence.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Much like Fina's own team of Hollow Breakers. Garote is green, Moneta is red, Spada is blue, Buffon is yellow, Calice is white.
- Knight of Cerebus: They are this BIG TIME for Season 3. Garote's goal is nothing more than having all of existence erased (which also explains the full extent of what happens if the Hollow is left alone for long enough: it breaks the fabric of reality), and Spada establishes the MO for his team by merely killing the one guy who helped Lasswell's team the most in Season 2.
- Tin Tyrant: Newer, more sophisticated versions, and unlike the Veritas, 100% evil.
Garote
One of the true Hollow Keepers, and seemingly their leader. He appears to bring the Hollow to Paladia, which strips the world of consciousness. His appearance has him almost taking down Raegen and the true Akstar. He's eventually revealed to be the leader of the true Hollow Keepers, having played Chorale to his own ends.- Didn't See That Coming: Akstar throwing his New Mirror of Equity at him and actually managing to hurt him was not in his plans when he takes on him, Raegen, Nichol, Sakura and Physalis's team all at once.
- Knight Templar: Similar to Sol (and unlike Vlad), Garote ultimately sees an inherent flaw in the way the world is - in his case, suffering in general - and decides to eliminate it in the most extreme method possible.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: This is his final goal, as he thinks there will be no suffering if there is no universe.
- Wham Episode: His fight with Fina marks the point where he reveals that Chorale and his team were no Chosen Ones for the Hollow Keepers. He then reveals his own team of Hollow Keepers.
- The Worf Effect: He first takes on a team comprised of a good chunk of Rain's friends plus Akstar and almost wins. Later on, he applies the same to Fina's party in Andigo, resisting her party pretty well while they work themselves to the bone to put a dent to him.
Spada
One of the true Hollow Keepers. His first appearance has him as Elmaul's killer in Mysidia's Magic Library, whom Physalis's team tracks down before being dragged into the chain of events that threatens the universe.- Hero Killer: He's the one who kills Elmaul in Lapis in order to stop research on the Hollow from being done in Paladia.
- Royal Rapier: Wields one against Rain and Lasswell in their final battle with him.
- The Worf Effect: So how does this guy introduces himself? Simple: he takes down Rain and Lasswell (granted, both weakened by Lapis's Hollow), plus Charlotte, Physalis, Lid and Jake all at once.
Moneta
One of the true Hollow Keepers, introduced by Garote when they finally make themselves known.- Came Back Strong: When Roca's team fights him in Chapter 8, he's taken a few levels in badass.
- Put on a Bus: After being defeated by Cleome, Fina and Akstar in Andigo, he simply disappears... and comes back in Chapter 8, when there's no more Fina to stop him, and Diverti has to bail Roca and the others out.
- Sinister Scythe: Moneta's flavor of weapon.
Buffon/Rhus
One of the true Hollow Keepers. He doesn't appear until after Fina's Heroic Sacrifice being rendered All for Nothing when the Hollow returns. It's revealed at the end of the season that he's The Mole from Sherna in the world of Levonia, named Rhus. He has interest in Rain's Aldoran heritage, which apparently branches from another lineage on his home world.- Dual Wield: Has a taste for wielding a pair of swords.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Wields a pair of those.
- Ki Manipulation: He has the same Blood Awakening as Rain, so this is expected.
- The Rival: He considers himself one to Rain ever since noticing they have the same powers.
- The Mole: He's not in it to help destroy the universe; he's actually interested in Rain's Aldoran heritage (due to being the same power as his) and played ball until the time was right, even helping him and Fina stop the Will of Balance.
- Remember the New Guy?: He eventually reveals to Rain about having met Raegen when he was a child. This is an interesting event because Raegen was pulled from his five-year journey to stop Citra, via the Farplane.
- Theme Naming: Hilariously enough, Rhus and his partner are named, much like Fina's party, after flowers.
Calice/Neilikka
The last of the true Hollow Keepers. She reveals himself only after Fina's Heroic Sacrifice is rendered useless. She's actually named Neilikka, and she's Rhus' partner in scouting Rain's Aldoran heritage.- Berserk Button: Fina and Roca are two of these for her, but due to her memory issues, she can't pinpoint the reason for it.
- Dumb Blonde: She tries to hide it by pretending to be an intelligent girl. Takes a dramatic twist when you realize she has long-term memory problems that causes her to forget important information.
- Easy Amnesia: Neilikka is shown to have memory problems and is unable to recall any distant event on her life. There are implications of Trauma-Induced Amnesia, as Rhus comments with her about the village they originally lived in.
- Flashback Fail: Played for Drama. Neilikka has serious long-term memory problems, which frustrates Rhus when he asks her if she even remembers their Doomed Hometown.
- The Mole: Like Rhus she comes from Sherna and joined the Hollow Keepers to keep tabs on Rain. Once she's confirmed his Aldoran heritage as being the same as Rhus' Blood Awakening, she's ordered by Niini to change course and help him and Fina stop the Will of Balance.
- Power Fist: Her main weapons once she leaves the Hollow Keeper suit are a pair of floating giant fists.
- The Smurfette Principle: The sprite doesn't make it clear, but Team Rain's fight with Calice at Chapter 8-2 reveals through her boss sprite that she's the girl of the team.
- Theme Naming: Much like Fina's party, Neilikka and her partner are named after flowers.
- Wolverine Claws: Her main fighting style as a Hollow Keeper consists of wielding a pair of gloves with huge claws in a Long Fist position.
